The present invention relates to a communication apparatus and a program for monitoring sound information of a target place and transmitting the sound information to a remote place.
At home, we live our daily lives by feeling the presence of other members of our families in the same room or a nearby room. Also, in a company office, we perform our daily jobs while feeling the presence of staff members in the same room or a nearby room. A sign of presence of other family or staff members, whether we are aware of it or not, plays an important role in our everyday lives. In a company office, for example, a superior can grasp to what extent his or her subordinates are busy according to signs of activity of the subordinates working in a nearby room. A member of the family living with an elderly person can determine whether or not the elderly person is in a normal condition according to a sign in the next room, for example.
In recent years, there are an increasing number of companies that allow their employees to work at home due to the progress and the spread of communication technologies such as the Internet. An increasing number of family members live apart from each other. In the former case under such circumstances, it is difficult for the superior to determine to which extent the subordinates are busy. In the latter case, family members living apart from the elderly person cannot notice if he or she falls in unusual state.
To solve the above-mentioned problems, a possible solution is to install a microphone at a house of an employee working at home or a house of an elderly person living apart from the other family members. An audible sound indicating the state and activity at a target place is detected and transmitted to a remote place where the superior or the other family members are situated. In this case, the superior can audibly and in realtime keep track of elderly person's physical states. The superior can audibly and in realtime grasp employee's activity. However, sometimes the monitoring by sounds is unfavorable because of the possibility of violating the privacy of the person to be monitored.
To solve the above-mentioned problem, a communication system has been proposed comprising a combination of first and second communication terminals as disclosed for example in Japanese Non-examined Patent Publication No. 2002-314707. The first communication terminal monitors other physical quantities than the sound, by using a speed sensor, a touch sensor, an infrared CCD sensor and the like to detect human motions, and transmits detection results. The second communication terminal receives the detection results from the sensors of the first terminal and performs responsive operations such as generating a predetermined sound according to the received detection result.
The above-mentioned communication system of the prior art using the speed sensor or the infrared CCD sensor are generally expensive. Further, since these devices cover only narrow ranges that can be monitored, it is necessary to install a plurality of sensors at different locations in a house for sufficient monitoring. As another example, in the above-mentioned communication system of the prior art using the touch sensor, no information is transmitted to a monitoring party unless a person to be monitored touches the touch sensor. Such a system cannot be used for the purpose of close and continuous monitoring of state and activity of the target person.